for all damages;[77] and in one instance a peaceable and
well-behaved hog in the road cost her owner a large sum of money,
because the horse of a traveller, being frightened at her looks, ran
away, smashed his carriage, and threw him out.[78]

[75] 1 Cush. 443; 13 Met. 115; 107 Mass. 264; 14 Gray, 75;
Pub. St. c. 112, Sec. 17.

[76] 4 Allen, 444.

[77] 10 Cox, 102.

[78] 25 Me. 538.

As an offset to his advantages as adjoining owner there are a few
disadvantages. Highways are set apart, among other things, that
cattle and sheep may be driven thereon; and as, from the nature of
such animals, it is impossible even with care to keep them upon the
highways unless the adjoining land is properly fenced, it follows
that when they are driven along the road with due care, and then
escape upon adjoining land and do damage their owner is not liable
therefor, if he makes reasonable efforts to remove them as speedily
as possible.[79] Likewise, if a traveller bent upon some errand of
mercy or business finds the highway impassable by reason of some
wash-out, snowdrift, or other defect, he may go round upon adjoining
land, without liability, so far as necessary to bring him to the
road again, beyond the defect.[80] If a watercourse on adjoining land
is allowed by the land-owner to become so obstructed by ice and
snow, or other cause, that the water is set back, and overflows or
obstructs the road, the highway surveyor may, without liability,
enter upon adjoining land and remove the nuisance, if he acts with
due regard to the safety and protection of the land from needless
injury.[81]

[79] 114 Mass. 466.

[80] 7 Cush. 408.

[81] 134 Mass. 522.

A town or city has a right, in repairing a highway, to so raise the
grade or so construct the water-bars within its limits, as to cause
surface water to flow in large quantities upon adjoining land, to
the injury of the owner thereof; but, on the other hand, the
land-owner has a right to cause, if he can, the surface water on his
land to flow off upon the highway, and he may lawfully do anything
he can, on his own land, to prevent surface water from coming
thereon from the highway, and may even stop up the mouth of a
culvert built by a town across the way for the purpose of conducting
such surface water upon his land, providing he can do it without
exceeding the limits of his own land.[82]

[82] 13 Allen, 211, 291; 136 Mass. 11